An Unknown Treasure
by Aisha Kaltinera
Summary: A pirate's work is never done, especially where it concerns treasures and long-standing feuds. Collab with cutekittenlady.


Disclaimer: I don't own Hetalia, God forbid I ever should.

A/N: This story will be in turns silly and dramatic, and probably containing coincidences that Victor Hugo would have been proud of.

* * *

"Hey, Al?" Matthew whispered, watching the crest the Titania created.

"Hmm?" Alfred raised an eyebrow, more concerned with his grog than his brother's musings.

"Are you sure we're doing the right thing? You always talked about being a hero, about helping people..."

Al narrowed his eyes. "Yeah, I did. Hey, are you saying I'm not heroic? That's a terrible thing to say to your older brother!"

"I'm the older one, stupid." Matthew shoved him a bit.

"But I'm older in, like, spirit."

"How does that even work? Actually, no, don't tell me."

"We're just learning, Matt. How are we supposed to be heroes without knowing anything about criminals?" Alfred asked, looking petulant.

"'We're just learning'? We. Are. Pirates. We could be hanged! This is treason and we could end up being tortured for it!" Matthew's eyes went wide, "Our parents! Maman will be so disappointed, and Father will be so angry! Oh you know how he is! What will they say when they see what's beco-" Alfred covered his brother's mouth with a hand.

"Cool it, we're not on the chopping block yet." Matthew blinked, coming back to himself. Right, no cause for alarm, everything was fi-

"ENEMY SIGHTED, ON THE STARBOARD SIDE." Both brothers winced, and looked up. Peter was waving excitedly towards a plain merchant ship, with the tri-color flag of the Dutch Prince. Matthew groaned and covered his face with his hands.

"Why is he up there? How did he get up there?" Matthew paused as he looked at Al's suddenly guilty features. "Oh no, please don't tell me you told him that if he was up there long enough, he would learn how to fly."

"Well, uh," Al hedged. Matthew waited. He lasted less than a minute. "He's a kid! He believes anything, and it keeps him out of our hair?" Alfred chuckled nervously.

"Just like when I told you that? Great, Arthur's going to kill us, because Peter is going to do something horrifically stupid in the name of being invincible, and it's going to be all your fault."

"C'mon he may be a kid but he's not stupid!" Alfred said putting up his hands defensively with a clearly nervous look. "R-right?"

"Just c'mon and help me go stop him." Matthew was already heading towards the ladder leading to the crow's nest in the hopes of convincing Peter to climb back down before he got hurt.

As soon as he reached the ladder he began climbing up to the crow's nest where a young blond boy was leaning out over the edge with a long telescope in his hand, scanning out at the horizon. There was no other ship in sight but there was a pod of whales in the distance, which was likely what had raised the excitable child's alarm.

"Peter, either you get down now, or we feed you to Kiwi, got it?" Matthew tried to sound stern, but merely sounded tired.

"No! You're not Mama, and you wouldn't feed me to him, otherwise Jerk Arthur would get mad." Peter sounded stupidly confident in himself. When they were back on deck, Matthew was going to personally choke his darling brother.

Meanwhile down on deck Alfred was staring up worriedly when a young man with dark brown hair came up from below deck and approached him. "Hey mate what's goin on?"  
Alfred jumped and looked at the other man. "Oh, Kyle, didn't see you there. Yeah, Peter got himself in the crow's nest, I really don't know how that happened, in fact, we shouldn't tell Artie, because that would be really-"

"HOW DID YOU GET UP THERE, YOU LITTLE BRAT?"

"HAHA, NOW YOU'LL HAVE TO LISTEN TO ME, JERK, JERKIE FACE. I AM FAR MIGHTIER THAN YOU."

The entire crew stopped to stare as their captain got into a shouting match with a twelve-year-old stowaway.

"Looks like he already knows, mate." Kyle patted his crewmate's shoulder. "Can't get worse, really, it's not like he's going to do something stupid." Kyle paused as his face fell somewhat. "Or I hope not anyway." He gave a sharp rap on the wood of the deck, and then spat over the side.

Kiku came on board, looked rather disturbed, followed closely by Adelina, who made her way over to England and began a rapid-fire Portuguese conversation with him.

"Peter-san!" Kiku shouted, still somehow polite and refined. One day, Matthew was going to learn how to do that, come hell or high water. "Could you please come down, there are many unfortunate things that could happen to you up there."

Li Xiao stared up at the crow's nest with interest before turning to the one next to him and saying, "Ten gold says the twerp falls." His dark eyes tracked Matthew and Peter as Matthew fruitlessly tried to force the stubborn child to safe ground.

"It would be a blessing. One less mouth to feed." Another crewmate agreed. No one was entirely sure whether the young... person was a boy or a girl. Though it didn't seem likely that Kiwi was a girl, there was something about the shorter stature and cute hair that didn't really strike them as masculine. However, the eyebrows were enough to mostly keep any questions at bay.

"Don't you even start, Kiwi," A voice growled behind them. They turned, not really afraid, to see Merlin, the ship's First Mate, glaring at them. "You know what the rules are, wait for us to dock and get the kid to shore. And if you keep track, I bet seven pieces."

Matthew made a grab for Peter only for the lad to dodge his grasp.

"You are so lucky we care." Matthew groused. Arthur's shouting was not helping.

"Hey, Peter, get down here! Because I'm a HERO, I need to tell you that disobeying your captain is the worst thing a hero could do!" Alfred shouted. Peter instantly looked a bit wary, but he stopped moving and looked a bit thoughtful. Matthew held his breath as Peter, with all the assuredness of a child, made his way down the mast. Matthew followed him, breathing a sigh of relief.

Peter was almost immediately dragged below deck to be locked up in the brig until they reached land.

Sighing to himself before sitting down Matthew stared out at the sea relieved that it was over now. "Honestly Al, you have to be more careful what you say to him. The sea is too dangerous for someone his age, at least wait until he's a little older before talking him into doing stupid things."

"I take offense to that." Alfred replied gruffly.

"Good, you were supposed to."

"Really, though, you could have gotten him killed." Merlin looked disapprovingly up at Alfred, and the blond wilted like a flower.

"I didn't mean to! He just liked hearing all of my awesome stories of awesome heroicness." Alfred mournfully gazed at the assembled group, who all softened to various degrees.

"You have to admit, though, that Peter does take such things very literally. I don't even think my brother's medicine could cure a fall that high." Li said, just as tonelessly as he said everything else.

"Your brother's a doctor? An' you dinae tell any of us?" Kyle looked put out, and turned to Kiwi for support.

"Really, Leon, you could have said something earlier! What about the time Erin got two fish hooks in his hand?" Li twitched at the sound of his English name, but kept his composure.

"I have no idea what teacher puts in his medicine, but he was always trying to foist it off on me whenever he came over, so I think it's, like, good enough to work."

"I thought he was your brother?" Matthew asked, cocking his head to the side.

"I just call him teacher, because he taught me much, you can ask Honda, even, he knows what teacher is like."

"LEON," Arthur shouted from across the deck. "GET OVER HERE AND NAVIGATE." With a sigh, Li did as he was told.

* * *

It wasn't long before everyone had gone back to their work, not wanting to leave the ship alone for too long lest they drift off course. However, Matthew and Alfred had been detained by the captain for failing to keep an eye on Peter, whom they had been directly instructed to keep out of trouble.

Standing in the captain's quarters was not a position anyone on the ship would ever want to be in on an average day or any day at all for that matter. Both brothers were reasonably nervous as their captain sat in his desk chair and stared at them disapprovingly.

Matthew shifted uncomfortably under his captain's gaze. He peered at Alfred and saw his brother sweating. Alfred was used to hard work and was overwhelmingly strong considering his age, but was so easily intimidated by a slight Englishman with a bad temper and a fondness for faeries. Not that this was shocking. Nearly everybody, with perhaps the exception of Merlin who was Arthur's own brother, felt the same way towards their young captain. Despite being somewhat shorter than himself and his brother, the Englishman was ten times more intimidating. He claimed it was attained through experience, but most people assumed he was just naturally that scary. This was especially true in battle.

"Now," Arthur said suddenly causing the two young men to stiffen, "would you mind telling me how both of you managed to lose track of a single boy?"

"Erm," Alfred explained eloquently. "I might've, uh, tried to get him out of my hair?" He winced at the sour look on Arthur's face.

"I put him in your hair because I thought you were good with children. Was I wrong?" The question was stated politely but there was a stern and threatening mood in the captain's voice as he spoke.

"Yes." Matthew helpfully piped up. "In fact, we're so bad with him, he should be in someone else's hair."

Alfred immediately caught on. "Yep! Let Adelina take care of him, or Li, well no." There was a pensive silence as everyone remembered the Incident With Dresses And Rouge. "We're terrible sitters."

Arthur looked almost, _almost_convinced until he saw the twin's relief. "Don't you think you're getting away with this! You're going to watch him until we land! Well, wait, no, hmm..." Arthur trailed off into speculative silence, the concern of his stowaway something-or-other-brother and his desire for punishment warring inside of him.

It was a tense waiting game. As Arthur sat thoughtfully in his chair, Matthew found his mouth and throat feeling parched as his stomach churned in anticipation.

"Go to bed, the both of you, I think I need time to devise a suitable punishment." The captain said with a dismissive wave.

The two brothers almost too happily took their leave and headed below deck to get a quick bite to eat before heading to their quarters.

"Oh we are so dead."

"Yes, but not until tomorrow!" Alfred cheered skipping, yes, skipping to the mess.

"How are you so cheery?" Matthew demanded, leaning close to see if he could smell drink on his brother.

"Shut up, the both of yea!" Shouted Merlin. They both went quiet for a moment (well, Al did), but made it to the mess without further incident.

The mess was really just a large section under the ship where the crew gathered to eat and socialize when it became too dark to sail safely. The crew typically relieved their stress below the deck verbally by cursing out their captain where he couldn't hear (as Arthur took his meals in his private quarters). Though even if he did hear, Matthew doubted the captain would take too harsh of an action against the crew. It seemed easier to take a slight hit to one's pride than to succumb to one's anger and risk a potential mutiny.

Still, as harsh as Arthur could be, Matthew would rather follow him than other more tyrannical captains in the navy and other seagoing crews. His rules were decently fair and punishments fit the actions committed. Of course, at times like these when it was him and or his brother in the hot seat he quickly began imagining what he would have been doing if he had just stayed on shore and found a job as a fisherman or other common work.

The two found a seat next to Kyle and Kiwi who were eating their gruel contently. The food on the ship was far from glorious, but it was edible. When you were sailing in the middle of the open sea, food was the last thing you wanted to complain about.

The brothers were welcomed warmly and the four dined together as Matthew and Alfred recounted their part of what had happened that day. Their two crewmates laughed as Alfred finished the tale.

"It's not funny!" Matthew complained. However he went thoroughly ignored by others.

"I still don't understand how that kid managed to get onto our ship." Kiwi said exasperated. "I was one of the group who checked the hold and I can guarantee you he wasn't with the supplies."

"Well just because you didn't find him doesn't mean he wasn't there. You and everyone else probably just missed the kid." Alfred replied devouring another spoonful of gruel.

Kiwi shot a soft glare at Alfred. "I can assure you that we checked every inch of the hull!"

"Maybe he just wasn't in the hull." Matthew suggested suddenly. He, again, was ignored.

"Look Kiwi," Kyle drummed his fingers on the table in thought. "Where else could he have been hiding? If he hid above deck or in the crew's quarters everyone woulda noticed him."

Kiwi's arms folded. "I won't be treated like I neglected my orders," pouting Kiwi added quietly, "Unlike some people."

Matthew caught the comment but Alfred, like always, was the first to act. "I heard that! I didn't deserve to get stuck with the brat!"

"Actually we were both-"

"Oh c'mon Alfred!" Kiwi's eyes rolled in annoyance. "You play with the children at nearly every port we stop at! It's not shocking that the captain assumed you'd be fine taking care of his brother until we got to shore!"

"That's completely different! Playing with other people's kids is different from having to keep one out of trouble!"

"Okay mates let's just calm down here." Kyle put a hand on both crewmates shoulders. "Don't wanna get so heated that someone starts a tussle and ya both end up in the brig with no dinner for a week, aye?"

Alfred placed his arm on the table and leaned his head on it, facing away in a pout with Kiwi looking away and doing much the same.

Matthew sighed. Kyle only bothered to stop fights when he wasn't involved. But even his friendly personality couldn't always keep tensions down. Fighting was prohibited on the ship (technically) and met with severe punishment otherwise. So if anyone wanted to slug someone in the face they had to wait until they hit dry land. Arthur had no objections to fights being done away from his ship, but if someone got themselves so beat up that they couldn't do basic ship work, so help him God, they were in for it.

Which Matthew didn't really get, considering that getting even more beat up and/or humiliated seemed contradictory to morale and not having crew members in the infirmary; but Matthew wasn't the one running the ship or strutting around with years of experience, so he figured his opinion wasn't worth much.

Perhaps he needed to get in a bad fight to understand. Most people ignored him, and many of Alfred's fights had been deterred or lessened by well-placed kicks to the shin.

Still, Kiwi was right to be defensive. Most of the crew found Peter to be nothing but a major annoyance that plagued them daily. As such there had been nasty talk about Kiwi and everyone else who had been tasked with looking over the ship before sailing.

Matthew couldn't help but think the whole thing was strange. While Kiwi certainly wasn't one to shirk during work, he couldn't say the same about everyone on the ship. And there really were few places the boy could have hid. Matthew promised himself to ask Peter when he next got the chance. Though, as Peter was now locked away in the brig, he did not know how soon it would be.

Eventually it came time to turn in. Kyle and Kiwi gave their leave as they departed for first watch, leaving Matthew and his brother to make it to their respective hammocks and turn in for the night.

Alfred always called first dibs on the top hammock, and detested being forced to sleep on the floor. Matthew, meanwhile, enjoyed sleeping on either hammock (though usually got the bottom one, even when Alfred wasn't sleeping in the top) and only slept on the floor if he had worked late and all the hammocks were taken.

Pulling off their shoes tiredly, the brothers were happy to find a pair of hammocks open for them. Alfred took initiative as he quickly heaved himself into the uppermost hammock, while Matthew subjectively laid down in the bottom one.

Alfred tried to cheer up his rather dour brother with tales of the sea he had picked up from pubs and the other men, although Matt found them to be rather badly told he appreciated the effort.

"What do you think the captain will decide our punishment will be?" Matthew asked.

"I dunno, but it can't be that bad. I mean, sure, we lost track of the kid, but he wasn't hurt. We'll probably just have to do extra work or get stuck helping out the gunners or something small like that." Alfred shrugged. "Anyway quit worrying so much and go to sleep."

Though Alfred had an easy enough time getting to sleep, Matthew stayed awake, staring into the dark and listening to the ship creak as the waves rocked it gently. Thoughts of his impending punishment on the morrow kept him awake before the dark of the night and the sounds of the sea lulled him to sleep.


End file.
